By striking down the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)’s Open Internet Order this week, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals just gave commercial companies the authority to block internet traffic, give preferential treatment to specific internet services, and steer internet users away from online content based on their own commercial interests. Since the internet is now the primary mechanism for delivering content and applications to the general public, it’s more important than ever that commercial ISPs not have that kind of power to control or otherwise manipulate such communications.

As a school librarian — and the head of the American Library Association — I expect that the court’s ruling will negatively affect the daily lives of Americans in a number of ways, particularly children in K-12 schools. School, public, and college libraries rely upon the public availability of open, affordable internet access for school homework assignments, distance learning classes, e-government services, licensed databases, job-training videos, medical and scientific research, and many other essential services. We must ensure the same quality access to online educational content as to entertainment and other commercial offerings. But without net neutrality, we are in danger of prioritizing Mickey Mouse and Jennifer Lawrence over William Shakespeare and Teddy Roosevelt. This may maximize profits for large content providers, but it minimizes education for all.

And with education comes innovation. While we tend to glorify industrial-park incubators and think-tanks, the fact is that many of the innovative services we use today were created by entrepreneurs who had a fair chance to compete for web traffic. By enabling internet service providers to limit that access, we are essentially saying that only the privileged can continue to innovate. Meanwhile, small content creators, such as bloggers and grassroots educators, would face challenges from ISPs placing restrictions on information traveling over their networks.

Protecting net neutrality and considering its effect on libraries isn’t just a feel-good sentiment about education and innovation, however. Network neutrality is actually an issue of economic access,because those who can’t afford to pay more for internet services will be relegated to the “slow lane” of the information highway.

Barbara Stripling

About

Barbara Stripling is the President of the American Library Association. She works as the assistant professor of practice at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York. Previously, Stripling served as the director of school library programs for the New York City Department of Education, a school district with over a million students and 1700 schools.

Public libraries — which serve roughly 30 million patrons each week — could face higher service charges for newly premium online information and services. In a time of already-constrained budgets, paying more for more internet access would require tradeoffs such as fewer books, staff, and open hours.

High-quality internet access shouldn’t be restricted to those who can “pay to play.” Unfortunately, by allowing ISPs to preferentially charge and premium price access, that’s what will happen, and public libraries — and the communities we serve — will be the ones to lose.

Finally, libraries aren’t just passive containers, but prolific generators of internet content — including digitized materials for the purposes of preservation and historical reference. The San Francisco Public Library, in just one example, digitized a collection of over 250,000 historical photographs and provides access to over 10,000 popular songs through its website. Such audio and video resources used to be the exclusive domain of large companies, but the internet — with its core openness including net neutrality — expanded our capacity to obtain information, create new content, and share ideas and applications across the world.

An open internet is essential to our nation’s educational achievement, freedom of speech, and economic growth. Tuesday’s ruling flies in the face of intellectual freedom, a key library community principle that supports the right of all people to seek information without restriction. We believe the internet functions best when it is open to everyone, without interference by internet providers. The American Library Association will continue to work to ensure all information resources have equitable internet access — not just those supported by groups with deep pockets.

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